Hiring a bicycle accident lawyer can be really scary. Most people who hire us have never worked with an attorney before, and they only know one thing: lawyer fees are expensive.

Of course, that’s not always true and in fact, the price of a bicycle accident lawyer varies wildly depending on what you’ve hired them to do.

To help you understand what bicycle accident lawyer fees are and how they might work in your case, we’ve put together this short guide breaking it all down. If you still have questions, feel free to give us a call at 1-800-262-8104 and we’d be happy to provide you with a free consultation!

No Legal Fees Unless We Win

At NOVA Injury Law, we only get paid when you do. If your legal claim proceeds to trial and is unsuccessful, you will not owe us any legal fees.

How Bicycle Accident Lawyer Fees Work

In almost every bicycle injury case, your lawyer will be paid a percentage of your final settlement. Typically, this will be 30 percent of the settlement if no legal claim is filed, and up to 40 percent if the claim proceeds to trial. Most claims resolve before trial.

Your attorney’s fee should always be discussed in advance and confirmed in writing. The document confirming your bicycle accident lawyer fees is called a contingency fee agreement. At NOVA Injury Law, we will not start working on your case until you have completed a contingency fee agreement.

In addition to the percentage of your final settlement, your lawyer may also take a sum from your settlement to cover the hard costs associated with working on your case. This includes things like:

  • medical record fees
  • printing/copying charges
  • traffic collision report charges
  • 911 recording charges
  • travel expenses from visiting the accident scene
  • At NOVA Injury Law, our practice is to pay all of these fees upfront and then reimburse ourselves from the final settlement award. These costs are usually minimal, and typically do not amount to more than hundreds of dollars. We also make sure to factor these costs into our settlement demands.

Bicycle Accident Lawyer Fees Increase If You Go To Trial

Very few bike injury cases go to trial. The fee information we just discussed applies to the vast majority of bicycle injury cases; there is a very slim chance that your situation will be particularly different from the fees we outlined above. Only about 2-3% of cases ever go to trial.

However, if your case falls into that 2-3% and does go to trial, it becomes much more expensive for everyone — including you (but nevertheless may be well worth it, if the insurance company is being very unreasonable!).

You might decide that you want to take your case to trial if any of these factors apply:

  • disputed liability (it’s not clear who is at fault)
  • high damages
  • treatment red flags (gaps in treatment, misdiagnosed injuries, etc.)
  • lack of cooperation from the defendant driver or their insurance provider
  • if you have made a statement that can be interpreted against you

You will be responsible for covering many of the costs associated with going to trial, including:

  • case filing fees
  • jury fees
  • subpoenaing records
  • depositions
  • mediation fees
  • investigation costs
  • exhibit preparation
  • expert fees

Again, at NOVA we cover these expenses upfront then are reimbursed from your final settlement, per your contingency fee agreement.

Not Hiring A Bicycle Accident Lawyer Could Cost You Even More

Going it alone can actually end up costing you far more than hiring a lawyer, because of the cost of mistakes and missed opportunities.

While you might think, “Forget hiring an attorney if they’re going to take 30 percent — I can handle this all myself”, then you are forgetting one key thing: a good bicycle accident lawyer can help you get much, much more for your case than you could likely do yourself.

Why? Because experienced bicycle accident lawyers know the ins and outs of cases like yours, and have negotiated dozens or even hundreds of settlements before. They know where to look to find more value in your case and can find opportunities that you might not even think of!

Not to mention the fact that an attorney knows the tricks and pitfalls insurance companies will try to set up to get you to admit fault or accept a lower settlement. One slip of the tongue could cost you thousands of dollars, and you might not even realize it when it happens.

Plus, hiring a bicycle accident lawyer means freeing yourself up to recover and get back to living your normal life. Running a case on your own often means spending countless hours getting documents and materials together, talking on the phone with insurance adjusters trying to trip you up, and preparing for and going to meetings and negotiations — all of this on top of your medical care, physical therapy, normal household duties, and getting back to work.

Insurance companies tend to take lawyers more seriously, too, which means your case will get handled faster and be taken more seriously. In order to avoid facing your lawyer in a lengthy court case, the insurance company will be motivated to negotiate a favorable settlement earlier.

So while hiring a bicycle accident lawyer does cost money, you get a lot of value back. And with a serious injury, you want to take that seriously.

Call the Bicycle Accident Lawyers at NOVA Injury Law Today

You can call us anytime to talk about your case. You will speak with an experienced member of our team, and your consultation is completely free, confidential, and there is no obligation. There’s really no reason not to call and get advice!

Looking for more bicycle accident information? Check out this post on determining fault in bicycle accidents and the sources of compensation available to injury victims.